ROAD FOREMAN
Ken Tetrault, Road Foreman, met with the board.
Discussion was held on the pickups up for bid by the Bowbells Fire Department. The Louisville truck won’t shift out of low gear. He also presented information on the skid steer going out for bids.

Tetrault asked about the generator building and if Ulteig Engineering was to be involved in this process. It was decided to keep the building to house the generator separate from the courthouse.

Tetrault reported that his crew has been rebuilding a rig to put on the front of a motorgrader.

They have located 58 places for 9-1-1 signs to be posted this year. Posts are already present in about half of the locations, which will help keep costs down.

Tarring has been at a standstill with the weather being as it is.

Ebsch reported that he has received 12 bids thus far for the Burke County Road 16 project. Bids are due at the next commissioner meeting.

Niobe Creek Crossing is at a standstill, waiting on Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The Smishek Lake Road plans are about 95% complete and will be advertised with bids due March 17, 2015.

EXTENSION AGENT
Dan Folske reported to the commissioners that his annual performance review would be Feb. 26 and the commissioners are welcome.

BID OPENING
Bid opening was held at 10:00 a.m. with one bid from RDO Equipment received for a motorgrader with the cost of $246,440. This includes a 72 month warranty/8000 hours. The bid was approved.

PLANNING & ZONING
Marla MacBeth had no applications for this month.
Arlo Griesbach was approved by the commissioners to fill the open position on the Planning & Zoning Board.

OTHER ACTION
The commissioners accepted an application from the Burke County Fair Board for a raffle.

Fundraising Event

Stage 2
The benefit dinner will be held on March 28 at 6:00 p.m. It is a semi-formal event. Advance purchase of tickets is required. Here is the chance that you have been waiting for to wear that dress.

Tickets will be sold at the cost of $45 per couple or $25 per person. So find a date if you don’t have one already. All proceeds will be donated to the fundraiser.

This dinner will be served at your table, fine dining style with an open bar by Brian Royer from “The Black Gold Saloon.” Royer will be donating $1 for every drink sold that night to the fundraiser.

The meal will be an Italian pasta dinner. You will have a choice of a red or white sauce and will include Ceasar salad, homemade garlic bread and a delicious dessert.

Stage 3
Stage 3 is the live auction set for 7:30 p.m. after the dinner. You may call in and place bids via phone.The paintings that were painted at the “Wined Up Art” event and donated by “The Artists” will be auctioned at this time.

Theresa Wynecoop has a vision to share, “Wouldn’t it be cool to see an elderly couple that has lived here in Bowbells for a long time. They come and do a painting, together as a couple. Then they donate it back to the auction. They begin to tell their friends and family members about this painting and how much fun they had creating it together. They tell their children and grandchildren about the painting and the auction. On the auction day friends and family members come to bid on the painting and some of them call in to get a bidder number, because they don’t live here in Bowbells anymore. The group of admirers don’t care what this piece of art even looks like. The only thing that matters is that they would love to have it as a reminder of this special couple.”

One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to the fundraiser. All donations will go through a local non-profit organization and be tax deductible.

All of these events will be held at the Bowbells Memorial Hall.

Reservations can be made by phone and online. Seats are limited. Please call Wynecoop for reservations and questions 701-377-4750 or 509-844-6681

Meet the recipients
Jackie Peterson lives in Bowbells and has for approximately 30 years. Jackie is the owner and cook at “Jackie’s Cafe” in Bowbells. She has been cooking for the people of Bowbells since 1996.

On January 3 she was med-flighted to the University of Minnesota due to a ruptured aneurism. The doctors say it was a true miracle that she lived through this and seems to have escaped any severe damages. She is recovering miraculously.

“As a small business owner myself, I know how hard it is to find the extra funds to pay for such a medical emergency. This is exactly why I feel it is so important to help her get through this devastating blow to her health and business,” stated Wynecoop.

Ashley Seykora 31, attended school in Bowbells. She now lives with her family in Towner. Just after welcoming her brand new baby boy into this world, Ashley, wife of Dan and mommy to Harper and Beckett, was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma.

Wynecoop shared, “I am proud to be part of orchestrating a fundraising effort to help her fight this battle. Not only for herself but for her beautiful and loving family.”

MAKE HASTE, JUST 6 MONTHS REMAIN UNTIL THE REUNION

Well folks, make haste, we have just under six months to mold and sculpt ourselves into a quasi-presentable bodily state for the Burke Central All-School Reunion.

I’ve got a fresh pair of Spanx on order in the event that the molding and sculpting fails to put stuff remotely close to its 1991 place by August 14, 2015.

Enough time has passed since the last reunion to have made most of our recollections of one another cloudy enough that we’re willing to reunite again.

Thus far, the reunion planning committee has a band booked for Friday and Saturday night for those of you who have the stamina to flail about for two nights in a row.

Come on in Thursday night to defend yourself against lurid rumors and to renew your club membership at the 109 Club Meet and Greet.

For those of you who manage to weather the wit and sarcasm storm of Thursday and Friday, there will be a catered meal and an emotionally stirring program Saturday night that is sure to tide you over for another 10 years.

There are numerous other activities and such that are being pondered and kicked about and if you have ideas, feel free to let the reunion planning committee know.

If you bring an idea forth, standard committee operating procedure dictates that you have also brought yourself forth to be in charge of seeing that idea through to fruition.

Especially if it’s a really bad idea.
Why come to the Burke Central All-School Reunion, or any reunion for that matter?

In our work-a-day lives we rarely have the opportunity to surround ourselves with people who share a reunion worthy commonality and are genuinely happy to see us or at least jovially tolerate us for 48-72 hours.

Although, you most likely had very little control over the circumstances that brought you to Burke Central, the fact that you were there, that you walked those halls, makes you a part of something you will always be a part of.

Our lives are made up of many pieces and parts that provide us direction and continually shape and mold who we are.

Would you be the same person you are today if circumstances had been altered and a different school and different people had been a part of your life?

Maybe, maybe not, but the fact remains that you were a part of something that is tied to a lot of other someones, and it seems selfish to withhold your part from that picture.

Circumstances and life events are such, and always will be so, that there are some who were with us at the last reunion that cannot be with us at this or any other time.

They are gone, and it’s up to those of us who hold a memory of them to come together with others who hold similar memories and allow those who are gone to come back, if only for a little while.